10 Reasons Kindle Will Fail & Our Misguided Predictions - eBookNewser

10 Reasons Kindle Will Fail & Our Misguided Predictions - eBookNewser

1. It’s big and ugly – it’s no sleek iPhone

1. I wasn’t invited to the launch press and blogger meeting nor is the CN feed included in the device day 1.
2. $399 to have the privilege of then buying books to read on the device? Can I get a Fail Fail?
3. Isn’t reading about the enjoyment of reading?
4. So now I have to carry an iPod and a cell phone and a Kindle?
5. Notice the large laptop bag in the demo video? That’s because this guy has to carry his laptop, his cell phone, his iPod and now his kindle.
6. Be a big hit with the ladies when you whip out your Kindle. "Hey Baby, I read!"
7. It’s the Homer Car - hat tip to Dan Lewis
8. Can it do images or video? If not, how does it deal with books that have images or blogs that have videos? Is it Lynx all over again?
9. Who wants to pay for the Scoble feed? Only if it comes with the whiteboard sessions!

A blast from the past.

Reviews of the Kindle3 look promising

An early review of the K3 (video) | The Digital Reader

A nice walk-through and comparison to the Kindle2.

Amazon Kindle Third Generation With 3G/Wi-Fi | Wired.com Product Reviews

WIRED Amazon keeps pace with a more competitive e-reading marketplace with a smaller device, more readable text, yet and another improved hardware interface. $139 price for Wi-Fi version will open the door for multi-Kindle families. Battery life is long enough for space shuttle missions.

TIRED Still the same DRM, no touch-screen navigation, the book-light case is too costly. Only those with tiniest fingers will avoid hitting the "back" button when moving the cursor down. Interface for newspaper and magazines still clunky.

How To Get a New Kindle3 for $109 | The eBook Reader Blog

How To Get a New Kindle for $109 | The eBook Reader Blog

If you get an Amazon VISA card at the same time you get $30 off your first purchase.

Amazon Sells more e-books than hardcovers for first time

The press release from Amazon is a little light on the hard data, but indications are that the e-book market is strong and getting stronger.

Besides e-books outpacing hardcovers the other thing that caught my eye was that five authors (Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts) have sold more than 500,000 Kindle books. Something for the up-and-coming authors to aim for.

Amazon: Paper Books Are Dead, Or Something | Gizmodo
Amazon Sells More E-Books Than Hardcovers | Epicenter| Wired.com
Amazon's E-book Sales Tripled in First Half of 2010 | Publishers Weekly
Kindle Sales Triple; Amazon Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcovers | The eBook Reader Blog

7 Free Audiobooks from Audible.com | The eBook Reader Blog

7 Free Audiobooks from Audible.com | The eBook Reader Blog

I don't usually bite when I see these lists of free audio or e-books available from various sources, but there were 2 in the list I wanted to read (A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman and FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson) and a few I wouln't mind taking a look at.

You have to register at audible before you can start downloading, but its not too onerous a process and they don't harass you with e-mail and whatnot.

Amazon fail, we worry about ebooks in the “cloud” | Bookbee Ebooks

Amazon fail, we worry about ebooks in the “cloud” | Bookbee Ebooks:

"If a giant snafu can delete Amazon web pages and data, who’s to say it couldn’t happen with customers’ books?

There’s a lot to be said for actually handing files over to people. Then the onus is on them to keep them safe, and the bonus is that they feel a sense of ownership."

Bookbee has the right of it. The 'cloud' is supposed to be robust because it is distributed. The fact of the matter is that corporations will never give up central control and when that central control fails the cloud disappears.

The paying public must be much more demanding in terms of their ownership rights when purchasing e-books.

Amazon buys Woot.com then Sells 4,968 $149-Kindles in 9 Hours ($259 two weeks ago!)

Amazon Sells 4,968 Kindles in 9 Hours on Woot - mediabistro.com: eBookNewser:

"Amazon has sold out of Kindles on Woot!

This morning we reported that yesterday Amazon acquired Woot, an online vendor that only sells one item per day and along with it the company began offering a $149 Kindle--a dramatic drop from the already dramatically dropped price $189.

In nine hours, Amazon sold 4,968 Kindles. It's not surprising, when you consider that two weeks ago they cost $259 each. Wonder what Barnes & Noble plans to do about this. Check out all the stats below..."

I hope that the purchase of Woot by Amazon means that Woot will start accepting orders from Canada. Even though they do not ship to Canada I have gone back to the site again and again just to read the advertising copy. Its some of the funniest stuff out there. For example, today's Kindle sale was described thusly:

Step Into The Trunk Of My Car
Yeah, yeah, that’s the real price for a real Kindle. It’s not a typo or a knockoff or some Russian credit-card scam – just a Woot exclusive deal. But, y’know, hurry it up, willya?

We’re kind of, shall we say, operating in a grey area here so the quicker we get this deal done, the better for everybody, OK? No muss, no fuss, that’s what we always say. Well, when we’re not saying “What seems to be the trouble, officer?”

So yeah, a bonafide Amazon Kindle at a Woot-exclusive price, the iconic device that wrote the next chapter in the publishing story – listen, you want cheap puns or a cheap Kindle? We ain’t got all day here and we don’t like the look of that guy over there. How long has he been standing there? Is he watching us? OK, time to decide, pal.

Besides, there’s this bar we really need to get to. I don’t know about the drinks but they’ve got the best lost-and-found in town.

... and the sale of Woot to Amazon:

Amazon Buys World's Biggest Bag O' Crap, And It's Called Woot

Batten down your hatches and stock up on bottled water, because we're about to hit you with a category-5 newsicane: Woot has been acquired by Amazon! This partnership with the 800-lb. gorilla of ecommerce is huge news for us, but probably won't change

Keep track of what Kindle users are highlighting

You can keep track of what Kindle users are highlighting at the Amazon site at http://kindle.amazon.com/popular_highlights.

Amazon organizes the data by all-time and heavily highlighted recently. All-time is self-explanatory, by the "recently" list is not explained in any detail on the site. Its probably because its still early days and they're being flexible with the number crunching until some some sort of pattern appears.

Most Highlighted of All Time

• Passages
• Books

Heavily Highlighted Recently

• Passages
• Books